Tuesday, 14 August 2007

The MLA Love Libraries award celebrates the work libraries do with young people. The winner of the award will receive a Trophy and £2,000 towards the project. I posted about this award back in May.

One of the five projects short listed for the award is from a SINTO member organisation - Derbyshire Libraries.Derbyshire Libraries Book Pushers are teenage reading advocates trained by library staff to spread their love of reading among young people. They give presentations in schools and libraries; influence the selection of library books; produce creative displays of their recommended reads; deliver training for library staff to help improve services and encourage more people to discover all the great things libraries have to offer. Jaci Brumwell, Deputy Director Cultural and Community Services, Derbyshire County Council said: “The Book Pushers are enthusiastic advocates promoting both the love of books and reading and the use of libraries. The young people involved have grown in confidence, developed new skills and encouraged many others to experiment with their reading.”

The five finalists face a public vote to select the winner. Voting starts on Monday 13th August and closes on Friday 14th September with the winner being announced at an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday 3rd October.You can vote on the Love Libraries website .

I wouldn't want to encourage unthinking regionalism of course but this is a great opportunity for SINTO members to show their support for this local project.

And while on the subject of promoting reading, SINTO is running a seminar on this subject in December. The seminar is delivered by Anne Harding and is on the 11th December. Further information is on the SINTO website.

Thursday, 9 August 2007

News of new appointments at Rotherham Library and Information Services. Elenore Fisher has got the job of Manager Cultural Services in place of Guy Kilminster who has moved to Cheshire and Bernard Murphy has been promoted to the post of Libraries and Information Services Manager in place of Elenore. Congratulations to everyone.

Wednesday, 8 August 2007

Sheffield City Council has decided to close the Development, Environment & Leisure (DEL) Information Unit (Technical Library) which was based at Carbrook and Howden House. This was a specialised information service covering urban design, architecture, construction, highway maintenance and design etc., mainly used by the staff of DEL. It was a member of SINTO.The press release says that "Following an extensive consultation and business review that found that colleagues are increasingly able to satisfy the majority of their own information needs using the intranet or Internet, the DEL Information Unit (Technical Library) will be closing on the 9th August."If this is the case then I cannot argue with the decision but one is left wondering how fully staff are able to meet their own information needs in this specialist area from the intranet and Internet. Assuming that Sheffield City Council does not expect the information needs for, say, highway maintenance to be met by looking things up on Wikipedia, I assume that staff will have access to specialist information resources through the intranet and Internet. But who is now responsible for providing access to these resources for staff? One of the library's staff members is taking up a new "communications and information role in the Strategy Team and the press release says that "questions regarding future technical information provision should be addressed to line managers". This should mean that a new structure will be in place so that staff will have access to the information they need whether it is in print or electronic format. Given the importance of urban design etc to the development of Sheffield I certainly hope so.